Vlogmas
by AgentOfAngst
Summary: Mario Brothers as youtubers AU. Mario does Vlogmas every year, but lately, he's been pushing out so much content that he can't keep up with the demand and his brother takes notice. 2nd day of 12 days of Christmas


**For the second day of Christmas, here's a sequel to my Mario Brothers as YouTubers AU. The first one is called Fun! Game night with my brother! (feat Mario) and this one is likely set after that. You don't need to read the first one to read this one, Mario is a popular prank and vlog channel.**

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"Hey, Mario Bros! It's December 15th, also known as the 15th day of Vlogmas or, if you're doing 12 days of Christmas for your significant other like Andy from the office, the day you give your loved one two turtle doves. Peach didn't seem too keen on getting a bunch of birds so yesterday I just got my princess a pear and today I got her two dove chocolates. Christmas, after all, is what you make it." Luigi paused his brother's video, which had just gone up, and looked at the influencer, sprawled out on his couch, not enjoying the cozy, glowing fireplace or the lively, lit up tree, or anything else in the gorgeous house Mario's YouTube career had paid for. Luigi scrolled through the list of Vlogmas videos for 2019, then glanced back up at his exhausted, slightly older brother.

"Hey Mario," he brought his laptop into the living room, sitting next to Mario. Mario looked over briefly and then leaned back, closing his eyes.

"Mm, yeah?"

"Did you know this year's Vlogmas content is underperforming?" That got Mario's eyes open.

"What? What do you mean, underperforming? Compared to last year's Vlogmas?"

"Compared to all your videos."

"No, no, no, no, no, that can't be, every year Vlogmas does way better than my other videos. Not that my other videos do badly, of course…"

"Of course," Luigi said with an eye roll, before putting a hand on Mario's shoulder, "I have some theories."

"Yeah?" Mario looked desperate, he was even willing to go to Luigi for advice.

"Last year and the years before you only did one vlog every week, this year you've been doing two or three every week, plus your collabs, your Twitch streams, and your podcast. A vlog every day for a whole month seems like less of a novelty if you're pushing out context all the time anyway. And for the people who like you for your collabs and your Twitch Streams and your podcast, daily vlogs don't seem that interesting."

"Then I'll do more live streams, I can do one right now, and I can do a couple more collabs before Christmas, you're here until New Years, we could collab six or seven times. We could crank out four today, change our outfits, film some stuff for your channel-"

"Mario, slow down! That's not what I was saying."

"Do you want to be on my podcast again? Do you think Daisy would be on my podcast? How do we stand with Waluigi and Wario? Do you think our channel knockoffs would come on my podcast?"

"First of all that's a terrible idea, never collab with Wario. I've met him, he's a disgusting human being second of all," Luigi paused, making sure Mario was actually listening. Mario stopped setting up his streaming camera for long enough to pay attention, "You're missing my point. I don't think your Vlogmas is failing this year because you've been diversifying your content. It's great that you're diversifying your content. I think Vlogmas is failing because you've been pushing out so much content that you're burnt out. I watch all your videos, Mario, and I watched you film a lot of them. Vlogmas was fun for you the last few years because you weren't treating it like another obligation on a long list of obligations. People watch you because they like to see you having fun. But this year you're just going through the motions, and you seem tired. This seems forced. You're not enjoying Vlogmas and you're not enjoying Christmas, either."

Mario stared at him, "You think so?"

"That's just a theory, but yeah. I think your burnout has something to do with the reaction to your latest vlogs."

"So it's pretty noticeable, huh?" Mario asked, seeming sad.

"What? That you're a little overwhelmed? Or that you're not as happy? Yeah, any long-time viewers can see that your energy has been drained. But it's okay, Mario. You have a lot of loyal fans and I'm sure they'd understand if you took a mental health break. I think a lot of them would prefer that you took a break, rather than see a decline in the quality of your life and your videos. Wouldn't it be better if you could just enjoy Christmas with your family and friends, instead of filming it and not enjoying anything." Mario was very quiet for a long time, "help me make one more video," he finally said after long deliberation.

"Oh, okay." Luigi took over the camera.

"Hey, guys! I wanted to apologize. I haven't been making very good content lately, I haven't been the entertainer you expect me to be. The truth is I've bitten off more than I can chew. I still love doing vlogs and running my podcast with my friends, I love the twitch streams and the collabs, I love making content. But lately, it's been very draining and my videos have suffered. So I'm discontinuing Vlogmas for this year, and I'm going to hold off on making videos until it's something that really excites me again, at least until 2020. I love you all and I'm excited to make more videos for you, but I want it to be content that can be enjoyed by you as the viewers and me as the entertainer. So I won't be following as strict as a schedule until it becomes fun for me again. I'd like to specifically thank my brother for his advice and perspective. That's the channel LuigiPlays, he and I do frequent collabs but he also just makes really good videos, so check him out. Have yourselves a merry Christmas, and I'll see you in the next video, whenever that will be." Luigi shut off the camera.

"Good job, Mario. I think that was the right thing to do."

"I still need to edit it and get this uploaded," Mario fretted.

The video will be here in the morning. Get some rest, Mario, take a break."

"Alright… Good night, Luigi."

"Good night."

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**Until Christmas, I'll be releasing a story every day that has a Christmas-y theme.**

**Today was Super Mario, followed by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Big Hero 6, Ducktales, Up, Infinity Train, Rise of the Guardians, Gravity Falls, Dear Evan Hansen, Percy Jackson, and finally, Teen Titans. **


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